(Australia) More than 105,000 Australians have financial assets of at least US$1 million, excluding home real estate, according to a new report by Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.Entitled ‘2003 World Wealth Report’, the study showed the total number of high net worth individuals – or HNWIs – in the Asia Pacific region rose by 4.9 percent, or a net 100,000 people, to 1.8 million individuals at the end of 2002.
Head of Merrill Lynch Global Private Client in Australia, Kenn MacMillan, said some 5000 Australians had joined the list of HNWIs since the previous survey conducted a year ago.
He said the combined wealth of HNWIs across the Asia Pacific region had jumped 10.7 percent, or US$400 billion, to US$5.7 trillion.
“This above average growth was supported by relatively high saving rates and robust GDP growth in key regional economies such as China, South Korea and Australia,” MacMillan said.
“HNWIs here also responded quickly to insulate their financial wealth against new market realities and build diversified portfolios.”
Globally, just under 200,000 people around the world joined the ranks of HNWIs last year, up 2.1 percent to 7.3 million people over 2002.
However, MacMillan said this was the lowest growth rate in the seven-year history of the World Wealth Report.